Delivering and stretching mechanism for machines for the manufacture of wire rope



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Patented May 15,.1888.

J. WITHINGTON. DELIVERING AND STRETGHING MECHANISM FOR MACHINE-S FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF WIRE ROPE.

(No Model.)

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' J. ,WITHINGTON. DELIVERING AND STRETGHING MECHANISM FOR MACHINES FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF WIRE ROPE.

.No. 383,087; Patented May 15, 1888.

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elevation a machine embodying my invention.

NITED STATES;

TENT PFMEW JAMES WITHINGTON, OF CHAMBERSBURG, ASSIGNOR TO THE TRENTON IRON COMPANY, OF TRENTON, NElV JERSEY.

DELIVERING AND STRETCHING MECHANISM FOR MACHINES FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF WIRE ROPE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 383,087, dated May 15, 1888.

Application filed January 30, 1886. Serial No. 262,349. (No model.)

.To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JAMES WITHINGToN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chambersburg, in the county of Mercer, and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Delivering and Stretch ing Mechanism for Machines for the Manufacture of Wire Rope, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates particularly to and is of especial applicability in connection with machines commonly known as cable closing machines, and which are employed to close together about a main core the composite wire strands which when closed upon or laid about said core form with it a cable, and its object is the delivery under tension or tensile strain of a wire cable from the closing machine and the consequent stretching or taking of the slack out of said cable.

To such end my invention comprehends machinery of the character represented in the accompanying drawings and hereinafter described.

In the drawings, Figure lrepresents in side Fig. 2 is an end elevation of the said machine viewed from the left hand side of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a fragmentary plan of a portion of, the housing and of a portion of the train of gearing employed for driving the lower tension drum.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts. 4

In the drawings, A A area pair of parallel, vertically erected, standing frames, A an extension thereof which, with the frames, may be said to constitute the housing of the machine, and A the bed frame of the machine. Between the standing frames are mounted the groove faced unwinding tension drums to which the cable S after it has been formed in the closing machine is led, about which it is wrapped and coiled, by which it is put under tension, strained, or stretched, and from which it is led to the winding drum or bobbin upon which it is ultimately wound. These two drums are preferably disposed in approximate tangency, that is to say so as to almost touch each other, the one above the other with their shafts parallel and in the same vertical plane.

I designate the upper drum B, the lower drum 0, the shaft or axle of the upper drum 6, and the shaft or axle of the lower drum 0. The shaft 0 of the lower drum is housed in fixed journal boxes D secured to the side frames or housingof the drums. The shaft b of the upperdrum is journaled in vertically adjustable or sliding boxes E adapted to ways 0t formed at the side frames, and each of the said adjustable'boxes is pivotally connected as at c, with a straining lever F provided with a counter weightfand suspended by a suitable pivotal connection f" from the upper portions of the standing frames. drawings will make plain in what manner this application of the straining levers causes the adjustable boxes and consequently the upper tension drum to be constantly raised to an extent and with a tension controllable at will by the size and adj ustment of the counter-weights.

Each of the tension drums is grooved on its periphery, each drum being circumscribed by a series of grooves, for instance six in number. The cable led to my machine is passed directly from the upper to the lower drum, and from the lower back to the upper, being wrapped around both drums, preferably, as many times as there are grooves in each.

It is apparent that the tension exerted by the straining levers upon the upper tension drum will serve, the upper drum being constantly strained away from its neighbor, to stretch or impart a predetermined tensile strain to the cable. The straining levers and A reference to Fig. l of the their counterweights which I illustrate, are

simply a type of many convenient devices by which tension may be exerted upon the upper tension drum to draw it away from the lower drum. The shaft 0 of the lower tension drum is equipped with a drum spur wheel G,wl1ich is engaged with an idler pinion H on an idle shaft it supported in the bed frame A of the machine. The idler pinion H is engaged with a driving toothed pinion I fixed upon apinion shaftz' which is also equipped with a counter pinion J engaged with a sister pinion K, upon one extremity of a counter shaft 70, upon the opposite extremity of which is fixed a beveled spur wheel L engaged with and driven by a bevel pinion L upon the upper extremity of a vertical shaft M upon the lower extremity of which is a horizontal beveled spur wheel N engaged witha bevel pinionO upona driving shaft P, motion to which latter is imparted by a pulley Q driven by a belt R.

The foregoing is simply one of many convenient trains of power gearing which can be employed to transmit to the toothed spur wheel G upon the shaft of the lower tension drum, and consequently to the lower tension drum and, through the frictional grip of the wound cable, to the upper tension drum, also, a motion of powerful but regulated rotation.

The train of gearing represented and described is a convenient one, but it is not per se a part of the invention, the gist of which resides in a pair of tension drums, one of which is positively driven while the other is positively strained apart from the driven drum, against the resistance of a cable wrapped around both.

Having thusdescribed my invention, Iclaim and desire to secure by Letters Patent:-

1. The combination, of a tension drum rotatable in fixed bearings, fixed bearings for said drum, a tension drum rotatable in adjustabled bearings, adjustable bearings for said drum, driving mechanism for positively driving the first named drum, and straining levers applied to and operative in connection with the adjustable bearings of thelast named drum for adjusting its position, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. The combination, ofa pair of drums each peripherally circumscribed by grooves and mounted with axes parallel in approximate tangency, a fixed shaft for carrying one of said drums, gearing applied to said shaft for rotating said drum, an adjustable shaft applied to the other of said drums and susceptible of movement radially toward or from the shaft of the first named drum, adjustable boxings applied to the adjustable shaft, and straining levers applied to and operative in connection with the boxings of the adjustable shaft for adjusting it, substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have hereunto signed my name this 16th day of January, A. D. 1888.

J AS. WITHINGTON.

In presence of- WM. HEWITT, J os. H. WRIGHT. 

